Longitudinal trajectories of emotions among young athletes involving in intense training centres: Do emotional intelligence and emotional regulation matter?

This study aimed to explore whether several subgroups of athletes representing distinct emotional trajectories emerged from the person-centred analyses for a wide variety of positive and negative sport emotions (anger, anxiety, sadness, confidence, happiness, harmony, love and vitality). The present study also focused on the determinants of the emotional dynamics exploring whether athletes reporting distinct scores of emotional intelligence (EI) and emotional regulation (ER) at time 1 (T1) belonged to distinct trajectories. A longitudinal three-wave measurement design (beginning, middle, and end of a competitive season) was used in the present study. A sample of 325 adolescent athletes evolving in intensive training centres completed three self-reported questionnaires. Results of latent class growth analyses (LCGA) demonstrated four trajectories for love and confidence, three trajectories for anger, harmony, happiness, sadness, and vitality, and two trajectories for anxiety. Furthermore, the likelihood of belonging to emotional trajectories was significantly influenced by EI and ER scores for love, confidence, anger, harmony, happiness, sadness and vitality. LCGA results highlighted the young athlete heterogeneity in longitudinal sport emotions and the predictive effects of ER and EI on their emotional trajectories. These results could be used to help coaches and sport psychologists to identify athletes at risk of developing dysfunctional emotional trajectories across the competitive season. Moreover, this study suggested potential benefits of EI and ER-centred interventions to help young elite athletes to experience adaptive emotional trajectories. Finally, these results highlighted that the heterogeneity in sport emotions must be accounted for in future research.